Toyota Motor mulls buying rest of Daihatsu for $3.2 bn

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp today said it was mulling buying out the rest of mini car maker Daihatsu Motor Co, which would be around $3.2 billion at current stock market price.

"We are constantly considering a number of possibilities relating to Daihatsu, such as partnerships or business restructuring, including making the company a fully-owned subsidiary," Toyota said in a statement.

The 48.8-per cent remaining stake in Daihatsu is valued at around ¥360 billion ($3.02 billion) as of Tuesday market close.

Toyota, which has held a 51.2-per cent stake in Daihatsu since 1998, is also reported to be in talks with Suzuki to form an alliance and compete in high growth markets like India.

However, th two companies denied the report (See: Toyota, Suzuki deny reports of tie-up talks).

Osaka-based Daihatsu is the oldest Japanese car manufacturer, and makes a range of small models and off-road vehicles.

It operates as subsidiary of Toyota and focuses on three main business segments, domestic, overseas, and consigned production and OEM businesses.

It has the largest sales of mini cars in Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

A successful deal would give Toyota full control over Daihatsu, which competes with Suzuki Motor in Japan's mini car segment.

In a related development, Toyota today said that it sold 10.15 million vehicles world-wide in 2015, outselling arch rivals General Motors and Volkswagen AG.